Vehicle navigation apparatus

Abstract

A vehicle navigation apparatus searches a matching link within a tolerance range from a travel locus of a vehicle based on map data when the vehicle makes a turn, and the vehicle position is shifted to the matching link that is found in the search. After matching the vehicle position to the matching link, the vehicle position is returned to a pre-matching position when the vehicle is determined to have entered a facility for facilitating subsequent processing. By returning to the pre-matching position, the vehicle position can be processed and displayed accurately in the subsequent processing due to use of the vehicle position referring to the pre-matching position instead of a position after the matching control.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]The present application is based on and claims the benefit of priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-214734 filed on Aug. 21, 2007, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present disclosure generally relates to a vehicle navigation apparatus for use in a vehicle.BACKGROUND INFORMATION[0003]Conventionally, a vehicle navigation apparatus detects, for the purpose of accurately displaying a current vehicle position, the current vehicle position and a white line on a road based on a captured image that captures a travel direction of a vehicle, and selects one of plural roads for matching the current vehicle position thereto based on a detection result of the white line if the current vehicle position is possibly matched to plural roads. A Japanese patent document JP-A-2005-345240 (US patent document 20080077322) discloses, for example, a navigation device configured to perform such ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]In view of the above and other problems, the present disclosure provides a navigation apparatus that accurately displays a current vehicle position without increasing a production cost of the apparatus.

[0011]Therefore, the navigation apparatus of the present disclosure can perform the subsequent processing with reference to the current vehicle position returned to the pre-matching position on the link, because the current vehicle position matched to the matching link searched and found within the tolerance range based on the vehicle travel locus is returned to the pre-matching position after the determination that the vehicle has entered the facility. As a result, the current vehicle position is accurately displayed without increasing the production cost of the vehicle due to the use of the imaging device or the like for capturing an image of the travel direction of the vehicle.

Problems solved by technology

Though the distance between intersections is an unambiguously-defined value, a travel locus of a vehicle may vary depending on a driving technique of a driver due to a lane change, a faltered driving, or due to a tolerance of a distance measurement (e.g., a change of the tire diameter) or the like, thereby leading to an un-matching between an actual travel distance and inter-intersection distance data on the map.

However, the above matching control causes a problem when the vehicle enters a facility as described in the following.

That is, the problem cannot be solved without increasing the costs.

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